Affiliation

Erratum in

BMJ. 2013;346:f4223

Abstract

Unpublished and misreported studies make it difficult to determine the true value of a treatment. Peter Doshi and colleagues call for sponsors and investigators of abandoned studies to publish (or republish) and propose a system for independent publishing if sponsors fail to respond

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: We have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and declare the following: PD and TJ have published on influenza antivirals and received a UK National Institute of Health research grant for the update and amalgamation of two Cochrane reviews: neuraminidase inhibitors for preventing and treating influenza in healthy adults and children. PD received support from the European Respiratory Society for travel to the society’s September 2012 annual congress where he gave an invited talk. He is funded by an institutional training grant from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. KD served as an expert witness in 2008 litigation against Pfizer relating to gabapentin. Funds from this effort were donated by the plaintiff’s lawyers to Johns Hopkins to support academic scholarship in the area of reporting biases. DH has been an expert witness in legal cases that have brought to light issues surrounding non-publication of trials and ghostwriting and an action by New York State that led some of the documents this article references to come to light. SSV was paid by the plaintiffs’ lawyers for assisting KD with preparing her expert witness report in 2008 litigation against Pfizer. SSV’s research related to reporting of trials in off-label uses of gabapentin was supported by an academic scholarship established at Johns Hopkins using funds from KD’s effort as an expert witness in the 2008 litigation against Pfizer. TJ receives royalties from his books published by Blackwell and Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore. He is occasionally interviewed by market research companies for anonymous interviews about Phase 1 or 2 products. He was a consultant in a legal case regarding oseltamivir.